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Shine a Light (US - BD RA)

Gabe is disappointed by the aging rockers and their legendary director...

Feature

For your early perspective let me first explain that ‘Aftermath’, ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ and ‘Let It Bleed’ are three of the most important albums in my life. ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ is an especially touching one. I’m not a very good ‘fan’ of the Rolling Stones in this way, especially when I consider, all great guitar playing aside, Ron Wood to be the beginning of the end for the band. I haven’t loved anything the band’s done since 1969, but the stuff I do love I love with fervour.

Shine a Light looks fantastic on paper: a continuously popular stage band going on their 46th official year as filmed by Martin Scorsese. What could go wrong? How could this, the best combination since peanut butter and chocolate? Well, the band in question could make bad set choices and generally sleepwalk through the songs, and Scorsese could go all MTV in the editing room.

My opening statement already brands me a narrow minded Stones fan, so I suppose my set list problems are my own, but to help plead my case here’s the listing:

I understand that some of these are the ‘old stand bys’ that the audience demands, but this was a chance to whip out some of the less heard, and more theatrical classics. They’re unquestionably fine songs, but do we really need to hear ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Satisfaction’ again? And do people really still like ‘Start Me Up’ and ‘Shattered’? Things are especially middling up until they get to ‘Just My Imagination’, which has some real soul behind it. The biggest chance on the whole set list is ‘You Got the Silver’, which Keith Richards does knock right out of the park (though some credit is due for ‘Loving Cup’). How about ‘Monkey Man’, ‘No Expectations’, ‘She’s a Rainbow’, ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ or ‘Mother’s Little Helper’? Or maybe they could’ve brought out a full choir for ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ for the encore? Heck, I at least expected ‘Gimme Shelter’, considering the song’s in just about every other Scorsese movie. Are audiences and fans really so boring that they expect to hear the same songs out of a hundred plus song catalogue every time?

I understand that the band is old, really old, but besides Mick Jagger’s prancing there isn’t a lot of vigour behind any of the performances. The band’s push at stage presence has become a cliché, between Ron and Keith’s dipping, Mick’s hip shaking, and Charlie Watt’s stoic and exhausted looking drumming. Why keep up the act after it’s become so expected that just about anyone can do an impersonation of all four members of the group? Jagger’s so busy trying to look excited (and the guy can move for a sixty-five year old) that he often forgets to, you know, sing (a problem with many lively front men I’ve noticed), robbing the already messy songs (Richards and Wood aren’t big on basic rhythm guitar strumming) of their base melody.

Scorsese lovers should remember that this isn’t the first concert film in the director’s repertoire. Marty also directed The Last Waltz, one of the seminal films in concert film history. The Last Waltz and Shine a Light are on opposite ends of many spectrums. The band featured in Waltz (no pun intended) is a band wrapping up a career at the top of their game, while the band featured in Light is one most people (including its original bass player) seem to think should’ve packed it in several decades ago. Waltz is often shamelessly theatrical, to the point that Scorsese forced the Band to play a few songs exclusively in a studio, where he’d have total control of the camera. Light is simply a concert with a lot of cameras pointed at it, and dynamic editing rather than theatrical camera movements. The interview footage inter-spliced with the concert footage of Waltz was exclusive to the film, and has a recurring theme of ending the era. The interview footage inter-spliced with Light is often made up of seemingly random archive footage.

And since I’m already in a slightly bitchy mood about Shine a Light, a film that I (perhaps unfairly) expect a lot from, I might as well accentuate my whining by comparing the guest stars to those of The Last Waltz. Waltz featured Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Ronnie Hawkins, Emmylou Harris, The Staple Singers, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan. Light features Jack White, Buddy Guy and (cough) Christina Aguilera.

Video

Scorsese uses a mix of super-grainy black and white16mm, colour 35mm, and digital high definition, and there’s even some old catalogue black and white for the flashback interview, so texturally this print has a lot going for it. There isn’t anything for me to complain about here except a few minor compression blemishes during light flashes. The stage lights bring out some wonderfully rich and vibrant colours, including realistic flesh tones when the lights go a little less colourful. I question my own judgment in even wanting to see the faces of the Rolling Stones in high definition. Every crevasse, pockmark, crow’s foot, and good old fashion wrinkle is crystal clear and larger than life. It must’ve been horrifying in IMAX.

Audio

You’ve got three choices under audio—a very nice Dolby TrueHD 5.1 that you’ll have to crank a bit, a very intense DTS-HD Master Audio that you’ll have to turn down, and a PCM 2.0 track that is abnormally quiet (though this may be a problem with my system’s abilities). I went with the DTS-HD track, which is finely separated, sharply crafted, and full of little surprises. The LFE track is large without throbbing or overtaking the other channels. Scorsese make one audio mixing choice that I’m sure looked great on paper, but that I’m not sure I like. When a member of the band is centred in medium close up or closer his instrument, or voice, moves to the centre channel and becomes louder. It makes sense in theory, but in reality the noise is coming from amps, which are located elsewhere (I am aware that noise comes from the instruments as well, especially the drums and Mick’s mouth, but in a concert situation it would be impossible to hear). It’s a nitpick and an opinion, so please don’t take it as an indictment of the track.

Extras

The behind the scenes featurette is made up of outtakes, more old interview footage, and best of all, footage of the band warming up. The warm up songs are a mix of full Stones songs, traditional blues, and some really wonderful acoustic stuff, which all adds up to something infinitely more interesting then the moulding standbys they picked for the actual concert. Paramount and Scorsese should cut and release an album of these outtake tracks. The footage runs about fifteen minutes.

Also included are four additional tracks, all presented in all three forms of audio and full 1080p video. The songs are ‘Undercover of the Night’, ‘Paint it Black’, ‘Little T&A’ and the boring commercial television standby ‘I’m Free’. ‘Little T&A’ is amusing just to watch Richards botch his vocals in an amusing manner, and ‘Paint it Black’ is probably the entire show’s high point (why wasn’t this included in the cut?).

Overall

It’s not the worst concert I’ve ever seen, it isn’t even a bad one, but it wasn’t what I was expecting out of the band or director, and the trailer was very exciting. Perhaps it was just bad timing. In the past few months I’ve watched Tom Petty’s 30th Anniversary concert, Muse’s HAARP concert, the tribute to Joey Ramone, and re-watched Last Waltz on this television. Maybe my expectations were just too high. This Blu-ray looks and sounds good, and the extra material contains the best music on the disc, so if you’re a more full-blooded fan then me you’ll probably enjoy at least a rent.

* Note: The images on this page are not representative of the Blu-ray release.

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Every other concert dvd you mention in the review is superior(and then some). And about the video, I thought it looked incredible but poking fun at their overall appearance is getting ridiculous. These guys are old, we get it! I just hope I look half as good as they do at that age.

I do agree that Shine A Light might be better for the casual viewer, the masses, or casual Stones fan.

Still I enjoyed the film even though it took the band about halfway into the concert to get really good. As a good look at the band, Gimme Shelter is better and yet Shine A Light focuses mores as a concert film than Gimme Shelter.

P.S. I do agree that some of the cut songs should have been left in the film. I did hate the closing shot of the film after the concert ends.

Good review and some valid point. We had this at our cinema and I watched parts of this numerous times and thought it was really good. It really came alive at times and the mix seemed quite intricate. The so-called highlights of the guest singers/performers did nothing for me though. I missed the Jack White ferry. I'm sure he's brilliant at what he does but he seemed a but geeky.

However, I say all this not being a Stones fan or indeed a live performance fan. I'm aware of some of their songs (who isn't) but I've never bought an album of theirs in my life so in this instance I'm an audience member who is easily pleased. I can quite see how someone who is a big fan would be a bit of a let down though.

Anyone who has an area of knowledge (as Gabe admits to) in a particular area can see the faults in something that seems to be aimed at the masses and that's as it should be but Shine a Light might be best viewed as an introduction or jumping off point for the casual viewer with the certain knowledge that there's better stuff out there from 'the Stones'.

Being a big Stones fan, I really liked this film (in IMAX), but it definately nowhere near as great as THE LAST WALTZ, or in the same league as the Maysles brothers GIMME SHELTER, which is probably the greatest and most harrowing concert cought on film.